Talks With Sudan's Rebel Groups Underway, Some Progress Achieved - Sovereignty Council

Sudan is on its way to achieving a truce with armed rebel groups and movements operating in the country, Lieut. Gen. Yasser Atta, a member of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, told Sputnik in an interview, adding that negotiations were underway, and some issues can be seen as resolved

KHARTOUM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2020) Sudan is on its way to achieving a truce with armed rebel groups and movements operating in the country, Lieut. Gen. Yasser Atta, a member of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, told Sputnik in an interview, adding that negotiations were underway, and some issues can be seen as resolved.

In mid-May, state minister for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, Omar Qamar Al-Din, told Sputnik that the country's transitional government was holding talks with acting armed rebel groups in a bid to reach a peace agreement between the parties and resolve all internal conflict.

"Of course, peace is a key to resolve all political, economic and security issues, and the most important thing is to re-evaluate national cohesion of the Islamic community in the wake of long years of the war and its repercussions - it is one of the most crucial tasks and demands of the transitional period, alongside with achieving the people's aim - freedom, peace and justice," Atta said.

As for Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N), chaired by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, the transitional government should take some measures to facilitate the negotiation process, and the leader "is required to make some concessions," Atta added, noting that most parts of the core issues have already been resolved.

"We have made progress in the negotiations. As for the Revolutionary Front [an opposition alliance to the previous government], I think that the issue can be regarded as resolved, and there only security arrangements that are needed to be implemented. What about the Sudan Liberation Movement [SLM], Abdulwahid [Mohamed al Nur]'s wing, there are direct communication lines with him via the Sovereignty Council, represented by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, as well as with the prime minister [Abdallah Hamdok] and the Forces of Freedom and Change," Atta said.

Talks between the rebel groups and Sudan's interim government are occurring to settle all the disputes left from former President Omar Bashir's regime.

In August, Sudan established the Sovereignty Council, officially dissolving the Transitional Military Council, which came to power after Bashir was overthrown in April 2019. Abdalla Hamdok was appointed as prime minister and head of the transitional government.